IT WILL be fight week in Barnsley next week as the town counts down to Callum Simpson’s historic boxing match at Oakwell.

Simpson is due to fight Ivan Zucco for the European super-middleweight title on June 7, a week on Saturday. It will be the second time he has fought at his hometown stadium after winning the British and Commonwealth titles there last August in front of 7,000 fans.

There are 15,000 tickets available this time with promoter Ben Shalom telling the Chronicle last week he expected the event to sell out.

The two fighters are due to be at Oakwell on Wednesday then, in a boxing ring outside the Glass Works on Thursday afternoon, there will be introductory sessions led by Boxing England for local school children followed by a press conference with the fighters at 5pm.

The weigh-in will take place outside the Glass Works from 1pm on Friday. There are wet weather contingency plans with updates on Boxxer’s social media.

On the day of the fight, Simpson’s ringwalk is due after 9pm. Doors will open at 4pm with the first fight currently scheduled for 4.30pm featuring former Barnsley Star amateur Red Johnson ahead of bouts involving Ellis Price from Leeds, Commonwealth gold medallist Scot Sam Hickey, while Welshman Rhys Edwards takes on former European champion Thomas Essomba.

The chief support is Mark Jeffers, from Chorley, who has regularly called out Simpson and claims he is the better fighter.

There will be more than 200 beer taps around the stadium including 86 on the pitch for fans in the seated area, while more than 70,000 drinks are expected to be served including 35,000 pints of Madri, plus about 15,000 food items.

Simpson is due to finish his training camp over the coming days. He told the Chronicle: “I am feeling great and really looking forward to it. Because we did it last year I know exactly how good it’s going to be and it will be even better this time. I have done a couple of ticket collections in the last few weeks and seeing how excited my supporters are gets me excited too.

“My final spar is on Friday then from Saturday I start to taper down.

“All the hard work I have put in over the last 14 weeks of my training camp consolidates and, by the end of the week, once I am weighed in and fuelled up, I am good to go.”